THE BATTALION Page
MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1981
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Photo by Greg Gammon
sm (the I Buddy Davis, captain of the 1951 Aggie SVVC champion bas-
holding I Ijetball team, shows off his free throw shooting style during a
I contest between halves of the SMU game Saturday night in G.
I Rollie White Coliseum. Davis made the shot and won two
! steak dinners in the Fort Shiloh Steak House promotion. The
| entire 1951 team was honored at the game.
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United Press International
HOUSTON — A 37-year-old
mother of three has become the first
human cancer patient to receive a
dose of synthetic interferon, which
researchers hope will prove to be a
major advance over natural interfer
on already in use.
Joan Karafotas of Northbrook, Ill.,
a Chicago suburb, began her treat
ment at M.D. Anderson Hospital
and Tumor Institute Thursday.
She is one of eight Anderson pa
tients who will participate in the
world’s first test treatment of hu
mans with interferon made by re
combinant DNA technology, genetic
engineering.
Program supervisor Dr. Jordan
Gutterman said this first four-month
test is intended only to identify pos
sible side effects and determine
proper dosage. A later program will
test synthetic interferon’s effective
ness against cancer.
Researchers hope synthetic inter
feron will prove a workable substi
tute because natural interferon is
produced in the human body only in
tiny quantitites. Unless it can be
mass-produced synthetically it will
remain scarce and costly.
Researchers also hope the super
ior purity apparently achieved with
the synthetic interferon will facilitate
larger, possibly more effective
doses. The new synthetic interferon
lacks toxic impurities found in natu
ral interferon.
Karafotas, who suffers from usual
ly incurable cancer of the lymph
nodes, received 3 million units, or
three one-thousandths of a gram, in
her first injection. The test goal is
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Group wants
anti-abortion
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United Press International
AUSTIN — Texas anti-
irtionists are ready to try to per-
lade the Legislature this session to
is bills making abortions more dif-
ult to obtain.
Douglas Johnson, legislative
aison for the Texas Right to Life
pmittee, said Friday his group
ants laws to prohibit abortions in
ix-funded hospitals, require minors
i have their parents’s or a judge’s
mission before abortions can be
erformed and make late-term abor-
ons difficult to get.
In addition, Johnson said, his
roup favors another bill that would
[Hire women seeking abortions to
iven information about abortion,
alternatives before the abortions
performed. The committee will
seek a bill protecting doctors
im lawsuits if they do not give pre-
oant women information about
sts that show whether fetuses are
pective.
Johnson said the committee has
't found sponsors for all the bills
* legislators will probably begin to
traduce them in one to three
Iras.
J Johnson outlined the favored bills
Impress conference for Rep. Henry
‘Hyde, R-IU., sponsor of the Hyde
ffndment that restricts the use of
_ er al funds for abortions for poor
fomen.
de was in Austin to address the
|ysicians for Life and the Texas
P [° hife Committee’s confer-
pobserving the Jan. 22 anniver-
F 0 the Supreme Court’s abortion
raon.
L! eview ^' sas the greatest civil
' lssue since Dred Scott,” he
r an< ^ ^h uc k Donovan, legis-
f e Sector f 0r the National Right
yL‘ e ' om mittee, predicted that
L I reme ^ our t decision permit-
Ei T 10n wiU be overturned,
Jpdment >aSSage ° f 8 Human Life
Lu buman Life Amendment
leral end a . ri 8 hts untler the
Lotion to fetuses, from
™ e ™ e of conception.
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a quiet
evening of dining
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5 p.m.-12 a.m. Sunday
and the perfect place
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4:30-6:30 p.m.
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_ woodstone commerce
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Harlem
Globetrotter/
Presented by
MSC Town Hall
TUESDAY
JANUARY 27
7:30 PM
G. Rollie White Coliseum
reserved seats: $7.00
all others: $6.00 adults $5.00 students
tickets on sale: MSC Ticket Office (9-6 daily)
Sears in Bryan
CHARGE BY PHONE (Visa/MC), call:
845-2916
doses as high as 198 million units.
“From animal studies, we antici
pate this material is relatively free of
toxic side effects, but we don’t know
that until we give it to patients,”
Gutterman said. “We think it should
be safe since they’ll be very closely
monitored. ”
Karafotas tentatively is scheduled
to receive two injections a week for
six weeks, including two injections of
natural interferon in the first two
weeks.
Continuation of the test will de
pend on her reaction. She will live in
a hotel near the hospital during the
test period and will undergo 24-hour
monitoring, including blood and
other tests.
A spokesman said the other seven
patients will be brought into the
program as it progresses.
Recombinant DNA production of
interferon involves isolating — or
chemically making — a human gene
for interferon production and splic
ing that gene into the DNA of a
harmless strain of bacteria.
The bacterium accepts the gene as
its own and begins producing human
interferon. The bacterium repro
duces rapidly and the company har
vests the comparatively large quanti
ties of interferon produced.
“I’m very positive about it,” said
Karafotas, whose lymphoma was di
agnosed 18 months ago and, though
incurable, has not worsened. “I
understand it’s all very experimen
tal. I don’t feel any apprehension.”
Karafotas, whose husband Phillip
is a commodities broker, said her
children ages 3, 10 and 13 are having
mixed reactions.
“The 3-year-old, it’s pretty hard,”
she said. “Possibly my husband can
bring him down for a while. The
other two think Tm gonna be a celeb
rity so they’re excited.”
Karafotas said she was chosen for
the program partly because she has
not undergone chemotherapy — the
usual injection of powerful chemicals
to treat cancer — and has fought the
disease by controlling her diet. She
participated in a one-month test of
natural interferon last year.
Gutterman said her blood chemis
try is good for the purposes of the
test.
But Karafotas also said she did a
selling job on Gutterman.
“I think I talked Dr. Gutterman
into it,” she said. “I’m a good sales
person because I really wanted it. I
really wanted to try it. I just said I’m
not shy about it and if I can help
other people.”
United Press International
AUSTIN — Unexpected early hostilities among factions in the Texas
House prompted immediate speculation that Speaker Bill Clayton may
be faced with steady and bitter sniping from his opponents in his fourth
term as presiding officer.
Within 24 hours of the opening gavel:
-Twenty-one House members voted publicly against Clayton’s
election.
—House conservatives aligned with Clayton attempted to take over
the House Study Group, which was founded by liberals as a means of
providing research on legislative issues.
You remember ’71? We re going to have another 1971,” one House
member said.
He referred to the session in which Speaker Gus Mutscher, caught
up in the Sharpstown scandal, was under steady attack from the liberal
group which became known as the “Dirty 30.”
A few representatives already are predicting the divisions brought
about by Clayton’s election to a fourth term may surpass the 1971
session in bitterness.
Rep. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, one of only two “Dirty 30” members
still in the House, said he feels more tied down by Clayton’s adminis
tration than he did by that of Mutscher.
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